ATIV Core tipped to be Samsung’s first Windows Phone 8.1 device

With Nokia clearly dominating the Windows Phone sales charts and said to account for upto 90% of all Windows Phone devices according to AdDuplex, there’s been speculation that most of the other players may find it difficult to stick with Microsoft’s mobile platform. However, with complaints like licencing fees that several OEMs (eeer Huawei & co) complained about, being addressed thanks to Microsoft dropping license fees for devices below 9 inches (essentially all Windows Phones), we should see things change.

Samsung has taken sometime to rekindle its interest in Windows Phone but now that the Verizon-only Galaxy S4 for Windows Phone (named ATIV SE) is already up for pre-order, things are looking up.

Samsung is said to be prepping a new mid-range device, ATIV Core, that will be its first that will ship with the newly announced Windows Phone 8.1 update. The update brings several features that have been desired by Windows Phone users for a while like a notification centre, custom backgrounds, ability to have separate tabs in Internet Explorer appear on the multi-tasking window and sync accross devices and even others like a voice assistant (Cortana) and a reworked camera app.